Dick Fate is a 62 year old, above knee amputee of Albuquerque, New Mexico who lost his leg in 2007 after a 13 year long battle with a soft tissue sarcoma.  “I was confronted with a choice of losing my leg and getting on with my life or of giving up all of my efforts to regain a normal life.  I chose to live and to get on with my life.”  Born to a military family in 1948, Dick graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with the class of 1971, and served as  the Commander of a tank company in Germany.  Following his service with the US Army, Dick graduated from New Mexico State University with a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.  He was active in the private sector in business development through the 80’s,  concentrating on energy issues and,  following that until his retirement in May of 2010, has since been a Manager at Sandia National Laboratories helping manage Sandia’s Environmental Restoration Project to successful completion.  He also led projects in Sandia’s Solar America City program and its Solar Market Transformation effort.

Dick battled soft tissue sarcoma for 14 years, finally losing his leg three years ago in 2007.  After two years of physical therapy at the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Albuquerque, NM, he was ready to do other things with his life to give back to the community for all of the support they have given him.  Always an avid bicyclist, Dick attended the Amputees Across America events at HealthSouth in 2008 and 2009, and seeing the enthusiasm and excitement generated and the wonderful response of patients to the AAA message of hope, Dick felt that his participation in this ride mirrors his life’s dream to make a difference in the lives of others.  According to Dick Fate, “Life is full of falls and setbacks.  I have always made it a point to make the choices necessary to pick myself up and keep on going.  As long as we never give up, we can never fail.”